Sunday, December 14, 2008

Odd Passives

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes has just started on TCM, and I was just struck for the first time by the lyrics of the opening number (Little Rock):
I was young and determined to be wined and dined and ermined.
We normally say you can't make passives except from transitive verbs, but "wine, dine, ermine"? Those certainly aren't standard transitives.

These verbs are what you might call indirectly transitive - their apparent object is a benefactive or recipient, rather than a patient (the recipient of the thing, rather than the thing). English, of course, allows a dative/benefactive object (an indirect object) to raised to subject in a ditransitive construction, though the patient (direct object) still has to be included. He was given a book, for example, but not simply He was given. But a construction such as "he wined, dined, and ermined her", the verbs are sort of a compressed concept, the reverse of a light verb construction: he gave her wine, dinner, and an ermine. Since those 'direct objects' are included in the verb, all that's needed in the passive is the benefactive indirect object.

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